Serum ferritin and the risk of early-onset colorectal cancer

Figure 1 Serum ferritin by American Joint Committee on Cancer stage and stratified by sex. Stage IV disease was associated with significantly higher serum ferritin levels compared to other stages (P < 0.001), particularly in males compared to females. A: American Joint Committee on Cancer stage; B: Sex; C: The proportion of locally advanced disease (Stage I-III) to advanced disease (Stage IV) by serum ferritin level, demonstrating a higher proportion of patients with early-stage disease with serum ferritin < 20 ng/mL compared to those with advanced disease. The stars (*) denote outliers and are standard when developing figures in SPSS.

Figure 2 Serum ferritin. A: After accounting for stage at diagnosis, serum ferritin in females was significantly positively correlated with age (r = 0.391; P = 0.009). However, this correlation was not observed in males (r = 0.086; P = 0.618); B: Serum ferritin by month obtained from colorectal cancer diagnosis, stratified by the stage of the disease, demonstrating a positive correlation between serum ferritin and a later time to ascertainment.